Here's When You Can Request A Price Adjustment From Costco

Low prices, generous return policies, free samples, and princely discounts are all things every shopper wants to hear when they go to a supermarket, and Costco ticks all those boxes and more. Most notably, Costco's returns policies are famous for being some of the most lenient around. A former employee on Reddit admitted that Costco has pretty much taken anything and everything back from customers in the past, including soiled underwear and rotten or half-eaten produce.

That's not the only way that shoppers can get money back from Costco. The wholesaler also has a policy that allows shoppers to ask for a price adjustment on any item that appears to be cheaper than it was on the day that they bought it. As long as the request is made within 30 days of purchase, Costco will match its prices should they drop lower in the coming days and refund the difference to customers.

Unlike its return policies, however, Costco's price adjustment policy does have a few catches. First, the purchase should be no more than 30 days old. Second, when asking for a price adjustment for a warehouse item, shoppers must go to the same location where the purchase was made. An item sold for cheaper at another Costco location is not eligible for price adjustment. More importantly, the prices of Costco's warehouse items and those in their online stores cannot be matched to each other. Costco shoppers needn't worry though, for Reddit has found a way around this.

Costco's price adjustment policy states that the store does not match its warehouse prices for the price tags on its online store as the latter takes into account shipping and delivery fees. This, it turns out, is the exact problem that got in the way of a Reddit user asking for a price adjustment. The Redditor found that the $229 air conditioner that they bought from the brick-and-mortar warehouse turned out to be selling for $189 online, a whole 30 dollars cheaper. Unfortunately, however, they were unable to ask for a price adjustment.

Some shoppers explain that this is because the warehouse and online stores are actually two separate entities. While Redditors find this policy absurd since Costco already accepts in-store returns for online purchases, others have a way around this caveat. For those who can't wait for online orders to be delivered but want that extra markdown, Redditors suggest buying the same item from both the online store and the warehouse. Use the item bought from the warehouse and return the online purchase to the warehouse with the in-store receipt when it is delivered.

The only thing to be careful of is to make sure that the serial numbers on boxes don't get mixed up (especially in the case of electronics) as that can get in the way of warranty policies later. Call it sneaky or ingenious, Redditors vouch that this trick works.